Renewing America
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President Obama's economic stimulus in the wake of the recession was primarily focused on short-term alleviation, with little thought put into reform for long-term fiscal health.
Should voters blame President Barack Obama for America's current economic malaise?
The Mitt Romney campaign, hard as it tries, will find it difficult to convince moderates that Obama completely mishandled the short-term stimulus. Their better argument is that the president focused too much on the immediate crisis, and did too little for the future. That future is already upon us.
Obama took office in 2009, in the middle of an economic crisis he didn't create. At worst, he was only one of many members of Congress who failed to support a 2005 bill to reform those benighted mortgage behemoths: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. As president, he has faced constant headwinds, most recently from Europe, but he has chosen to respond to these troubles with short-run fixes that missed opportunities to carry out more lasting reforms.
